The bitter sweetener battle

If you're looking for a natural sweetener with a history of safe use and practically no calories, tough. There is one, but you won't find it next to those little blue packets. Many in the herb industry believe that's because stevia (Stevia rebaudiana), a sweet-tasting herb native to Paraguay, has been the subject of an aggressive campaign by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to keep it away from American consumers.

Until 1994, the FDA enforced an all-out ban on the import of stevia, labeling it an "unsafe food additive." But the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) allowed stevia to be sold as a dietary supplement, thus placing it beyond the FDA's reach. As a result, however, manufacturers are prohibited from making any claims that even imply stevia is sweet. Such an action would knock it right back into the food-additive category and allow the agency to declare it unsafe. So while marketers can't mention stevia's biggest selling point--its sweetness--they are free to sell it as a dietary supplement. (Among the dietary benefits associated with stevia are that it may help regulate blood sugar, aid in digestion and fight cavities.)

Oscar Rodes, vice president of Stevita Inc., a stevia manufacturer based in Arlington, Texas, that markets the herb as a dietary supplement, is all too familiar with the FDA's strong regulatory hand. The FDA recently embargoed the company's stevia, charging that Stevita's promotional literature "pictures a drink appearing to be coffee or tea surrounded by jars ... of Stevita. This promotional effect depicts a sweetening agent." The FDA has yet to lift the embargo, regardless of the fact that the company, in an effort to comply with agency standards, has changed the graphics and stopped sending out a promotional ceramic mug.

Stevia has been safely used as a sweetener in Japan for more than 25 years--so why is the FDA intent on keeping it out of your kitchen? The agency responded to this very question in 1997 with a document listing 19 studies that supposedly raised "unresolved concerns." Among them is the concern the herb may contribute to hypoglycemia and may be linked to decreased fertility levels of laboratory animals. However, Mauro Alvarez, Ph.D., a researcher in Brazil whose work was cited by the FDA in this document, disagrees. He contends his studies actually had positive conclusions regarding safety. "The only possible way to report that the results showed detrimental effects is by taking information out of context," says Alvarez. "If this is the case, these FDA scientists are incompetent ... or have the objective to keep the plant away from American consumers by attributing it to safety issues that don't exist." The FDA has since declined to comment on these charges.

Many industry insiders hold firm that the FDA's reasons for blocking stevia consumption have more to do with protecting vested trade interests than protecting consumers. "The FDA took action against stevia not based on any proclamation by FDA toxicologists or consumer complaints, but because of a complaint from a company that didn't want stevia on the market," asserts Rob McCaleb, president and founder of the nonprofit Herb Research Foundation in Boulder. The FDA admits that a complaint was filed, but will not reveal who filed it.

Should stevia hit the mainstream as a low-calorie sweetener, it could prove strong competition for the billion-dollar market that includes aspartame (NutraSweet), acesulfame K, saccharin and the latest addition, sucralose, made from laboratory-altered sucrose (sugar). The FDA has interestingly taken no action against aspartame, despite the thousands of consumer complaints regarding it (including dizziness, seizures and multiple-sclerosis-like symptoms) and that more than 75 percent of all nondrug-related complaints to the agency involve this sweetener.

We may never learn the full story behind the FDA's alleged anti-stevia campaign. But there's one thing the FDA can't regulate: your using stevia any way you want once you get it home.

RELATED ARTICLE: The Many Faces of Stevia

Go ahead and bake with stevia, because--since we're allowed to say so--it makes anything taste really sweet. Stevia comes in many forms. Make your choice based on the amount of sweetness you want (white extract powders are the sweetest) and how well a particular recipe or beverage will be complemented by the licorice-like flavor of less-refined forms. Tip: You can't replace sugar or honey on a cup-for-cup basis with stevia--the herb is much sweeter. Here's a quick, look at its different forms.

Dried leaves

Finely powdered dried stevia leaf may come in bulk or packaged like tea, bags. It has a greenish color and can be used in a wide variety of foods and beverages, including coffee, applesauce and hot cereals. You also can use it to make an herbal tea blend. Its distinctive flavor is reminiscent of licorice, which will blend very well with lots of aromatic spices, such as cinnamon and ginger.

Extract powder

This white powder is an extract of the sweet glycosides (natural sweetening agents) in the stevia leaf. In this form it's approximately 200 to 300 times sweeter than sugar, so use it by the pinch (or drop if diluted in water).

Liquid concentrates

These come in several forms. There's a, syrupy black liquid (that results from boiling the leaves in water), which can enhance the flavor of many foods. Another type is made by steeping stevia leaves in distilled water or a mix of water and grain alcohol. You also can find white extract powder that has been premixed in water.

RELATED ARTICLE: Carrot & Stick

A carrot to Farm Sanctuary, an animal advocacy group based in Orland, Calif., for its effort to block ranches and dairy farmers from ridding their stockyards of downed cattle (those that cannot stand) by sending them to slaughter. Although the law says that diseased animals cannot be used for human consumption, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not define a downed animal as diseased. Farm Sanctuary vehemently disagrees. The group recently filed a petition with the FDA asking for the practice to be outlawed, stating that downed animals often suffer from bovine leukemia virus, bovine immunodeficiency virus and may suffer from a form of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease). In other words, yesterday's deathly ill cow may be today's burger. Pass those veggie burgers, please.

A carrot to author Robin Cook for his novel Toxin (Putnam, 1998). The best-selling author of Coma and Outbreak, with his affinity for reality-based horror, has taken on two of today's hottest topics; food-borne illness and HMO bureaucracy. Cook's tale take us into the nightmare of Kim Reggis, M.D., whose daughter becomes infected with E. coli O157:H7 after eating contaminated meat. Sending the frightening message that Americans have been placed in serious danger by a greedy and corrupt beef industry, Cook adds to the nightmare by painting a grim picture of bottom-line-driven HMOs that are putting patients' health at risk for the sake of profit. The story is fiction but, unfortunately, the facts are not.

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